Carlos Di Sarli

Carlos Di Sarli occupies a central place in the history of Argentine tango, the Buenos Aires genre that emerged near the close of the nineteenth century and drew its characteristic colour from the bandoneón.^[1] An Argentine musician whose life ran from 1903 to 1960,^[2] he is described in fuller biographical accounts as a tango pianist, composer, and orchestra director, born in January 1903 and dying in January 1960.^[3] Surveys of the genre rank him among its principal figures, naming him beside such composers and performers as Francisco Canaro, Juan D'Arienzo, Osvaldo Pugliese, and Ástor Piazzolla.^[4]

Di Sarli was born in Bahía Blanca, in the south of Argentina, the eighth child of Miguel Di Sarli, an Italian immigrant who kept a gunsmith's shop, and of Serafina Russomano, the daughter of the tenor Tito Russomano.^[5] Baptised Cayetano in keeping with his family's Catholic observance, he afterwards adopted the name Carlos and grew up in a household steeped in music, with one brother teaching at the Williams conservatory, another singing as a baritone, and a younger brother training as a pianist.^[6] Carlos himself studied classical music at that conservatory, yet in 1916 a workshop accident cost him the sight of one eye and obliged him to wear spectacles for the remainder of his life.^[7]

His early training was itinerant rather than settled. At the age of thirteen he joined a troupe of travelling musicians who toured the provinces with a repertory of popular songs and tangos, and he afterwards spent two years in Santa Rosa, in La Pampa, accompanying silent films and performing at a club.^[8] He returned to Bahía Blanca in 1919, formed his first orchestra, and played in local cafés before carrying the ensemble on tour through several provinces.^[9] In 1923 he and his younger brother moved to Buenos Aires, the capital where the genre's recording studios and cabarets were concentrated.^[10]

In Buenos Aires his ascent was rapid. He found a place in the orchestra of Anselmo Aieta and, in 1926, joined that of Osvaldo Fresedo, who became both a close friend and a decisive influence on his developing style.^[11] By late 1927 Di Sarli was leading his own orquesta típica from the piano, appearing in clubs, broadcasting on Radio Cultura, and recording for the RCA Victor label.^[12] In the years bridging 1928 and 1931 the orchestra produced forty-eight recorded sides, several of them carrying the brief sung refrains that estribillo singers supplied during performances.^[13]

In later years his orchestra served as a platform for several admired tango vocalists. Roberto Rufino, the Buenos Aires singer known as "El Pibe del Abasto", numbered Di Sarli's ensemble among the major orchestras with which he sang.^[14] The singer Roberto Florio, who performed under the nickname "Chocho", likewise counted the Di Sarli orchestra among the leading groups of his career, a measure of the standing the bandleader's name carried within the tango world.^[15]